Francis ii



HEEL PLATE.

Patented May 6. 1890.

P. H. RICHARDS.

D I 2W (No Model.)

Wdwmoea UNITE ATENT OFFICE.

FRANCIS H. RICHARDS, OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO THE HARTFORD HEEL PLATE COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

HEEL PLATE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 427,524, dated May 6, 1890.

Application filed September 29, 1887. Renewed October 4:, 1889. Serial No. 325,993. (N model.)

To aZZ whom/ it may concern.-

Be it known that I, FRANeIs H. RICHARDS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Hartford, in the county of Hartford and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Heel-Plates, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to that class of heelplates adapted for use on rubber overshoes;

and it consists in the improvements hereinafter more fully set forth. t

Figure 1 is a top view of -a heel-plate having my-improvements. Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view in line a. a, Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a secr 5 tional view of the heel-plate set into the heel of a rubber shoe. Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 2, showing a plate without any depression surrounding the prongs. Fig. 5 shows this form of plate attached to a heel.

Similar characters designate like parts in all the figures.

The plate T is or may be of the usual de scription, being ordinarily a malleable-iron casting, and of such shapes and sizes as required for the various sizes and styles of shoes. On its upper surface the plate is provided with a series of prongs 2, suflicient in number and of proper size to securely hold the plate by being inserted through a heel H,

Fig. 3, and having their points clinched down on the inside of said heel, as at 3.

For the purpose of preventing the ready access of water ,between the heel and the plate to the base of the prongs, these are sur- 3 5 rounded by a packing of rubber, cork, guttapercha, or other similar yielding material, as 5, surrounding said prongs and adapted to be compressed against the lower surface of the heel next to the prong. This is shown in 0 Figs. 3 and 5, Where the material of the sole or heel H is shown to be pierced by the prong 2, which is clinched down on the inside thereof, thus drawing the plate Tfirlnly onto the heel and compressing the washer or packing 5 firmly around the prongs. To provide space for the packing and to prevent this holding the plate off from the heel, a depression 6, Fig. 2, may be provided, in which the washer 5 is laid and into which it is compressed on applying the plate to a shoe-heel. W'hen 5o these depressions are not used, the packing will be compressed and forced into the heel,

as illustrated in Fig. 5. By this means, even though the plate does not properly fit the heel throughout its length, (and a perfect fit is seldom attained,) the water is prevented free access to the base of the prongs, as in practice it otherwise generally does have.

Having thus described my invention, I elai1n 6o 1. The improved article of manufacture herein described, consisting ofthe metallic heel-plate T, having the malleable prongs 2 and provided with the compressible packing surrounding the base of said prongs, substano 5 tially as described.

2. The improved heelplate herein described, consisting of a plate provided with prongs for the attachment thereof to the heel, and having depressions, substantially as described, surrounding said prongs, and packings surrounding said prongs and adapted to be compressed into said depressions, substantially as described.

3. The combination, in a shoe, of the sole H, a heel-plate closed onto said sole by prongs which extend upward from said plate into said sole, and packings surrounding said prongs, andcompressed between said plate and sole, substantially as described.

FRANCIS H. RICHARDS.

Witnesses:

WILBUR M. STONE, GEO. W. DRAKE. 

